Am very hungry, but have to wait until a chicken finishes roasting. It is roasting in my shiny new roasting pan, bought for cheap at the Linens and Things going out of business sale, along with some kitchen gadgets and a lightweight blanket. By happy coincidence, Dave's had oven-stuffers on sale this week. It smells great, making me even more hungry.

[A brief interlude in which the chicken comes out of the oven, and the gravy is started. Now the gravy is reducing a little while the meat rests.]

I got a 3" thick memory foam mattress topper a couple of years ago which has been wonderful for my back. It's also a terrific insulator, which is great in the winter, but on not so cold nights most of my other blankets are just too warm in combination with it. For the summer, I used two sheets in lieu of a blanket, but that's not enough for those middlin' cool fall nights we've been having, and my other blankets are just too much. (Hard to believe that when I was in grad school I used an electric blanket plus a comforter on occasion. Of course, I have more internal insulation these days.)

I have also made a discovery about the sizing of blankets. I have a standard full-size bed. Years ago, blankets were available for full-size beds. Now they no longer exist, and one is expected to buy a "full-queen" sized blanket, which costs more. But last time I bought a blanket I actually looked at the measurements of twin-size blanket, and realized that it would do perfectly well on my bed, especially given that I never make my bed and prefer to just sort of wrap the bed linens around me. Cheap blankets!

Dinner time!